Religion Dispatches
…telling, the modern Republican Party is the party more favorable to African-Americans because Republicans led the fight against slavery and for civil rights: from the formation of the Republican Party as the “anti-slavery party” and the “election of Abraham Lincoln as the first Republican President,” to the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, the passage of civil rights laws during Reconstruction, and the election…
Read More…But the alliance with Christian Zionists is not limited to the ZOA or like-minded, right-wing organizations. The public dissent over a Jewish embrace of Hagee reached its apex around 2008 or so, when John McCain rejected Hagee’s endorsement of his presidential run, and has since largely faded away. Christian Zionist support for Israel is still largely accepted, or at least not openly criticized by the establishment. If that’s changing, I haven’t…
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…addition, Reality Check takes care to note disparate outcomes among African-American, Latinx, ex-Muslim, and LGBTQ respondents, the intersections of whose racial, ethnic, sexuality, and gender identities can affect their experiences as nonreligious Americans. After reading Reality Check, I recently decided to test the waters on how the politically engaged, broadly progressive public might relate to the representation of nonreligious Americans as a…
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…enes work ADF is doing at the Organization of American States and its Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The push into Latin America follows earlier expansion of its presence in Europe. Today, ADF is one of the largest conservative legal organizations in the United States, with a budget dwarfing those of sister groups like the Becket Fund and Liberty Counsel. Indeed, one might argue that it is chiefly responsible for the rightward jurispru…
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…modes of parenting. In one scene he affectionately compliments El—his soon-to-be adopted androgynous daughter—for her “bitchin” punk make-over. Lucy Baker and Amanda Howell note that here, the police chief is re-articulating his previous domineering efforts to keep El hidden, under lock and key, from government authorities: “Hopper re-evaluates his stance of patriarchal control, becoming in the process a positive example of parental adaptability…
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…t of decades of careful cultivation by corporate interests. While the issue-by-issue discussions in Keddie’s third section lack some of the voltage of the historical analysis, he does demonstrate his considerable theological chops here. Perhaps it comes as news that many Christians believe Jesus urged his disciples to arm themselves? Well, here you will find the firm scriptural foundation for Second Amendment rights! I value this part of the book…
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…ive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, called the Trump-Pence ticket the “most anti-Catholic GOP presidential ticket in modern history” because of not only Trump’s many shortcomings but also Pence’s record of blocking the Catholic Church’s efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in Indiana. Trump’s poor standing with Catholic voters resembles his “Mormon problem,” as I have written about. Taken together, the Catholic and Mormon rej…
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…ocities, even if entirely the invention of moral entrepreneurs and demagogues, has caused panic with devastating consequences. In the case of QAnon, whose Satanic conspiracies circulate predominantly online rather than face-to-face, it’s so far unclear how many people will be mobilized to investigate or avenge alleged Satanic atrocities in the real world. We should nevertheless be watchful and aware of the history of these kinds of rumors….
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…erve as a catalyst for taking the pandemic seriously. In my own life, Covid-19-related death has been absent. It was only recently, when a former student died in a tragic accident, that I realized how removed death has been from my experience. He was the son of friends; his mother is the head of my children’s school. The death of a young person, especially one with exceptional promise, would be a tragedy on any day. Given the grim backdrop of the…
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…g against gay people and women), the event has failed to catch on with rank-and-file Catholics. Jon O’Brien, head of Catholics for Choice, which unveiled a front-page ad on Monday in the Washington Post’s Express commuter daily, was among the Fortnight’s critics. “It’s more to be pitied than to be laughed at, it’s not as if they actually have this legion of Catholics behind them,” he said. “Catholics don’t want the persecution of gay teachers at C…
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